SB 98: Education finance: local control funding formula: enrollment-based funding report.

Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula, as specified, that includes average daily attendance as a component of that calculation for these local educational agencies. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, on or before February 20 of each year, to make a first principal apportionment of funds and, on or before July 2 of each year, to make a 2nd principal apportionment of funds to each local educational agency.

This bill would require the Legislative Analysts Office to submit a report to the Legislature, on or before January 1, 2026, on the effects of changing the pupil count methodology of the local control funding formula from average daily attendance to pupil enrollment. The bill would require the report, at a minimum, to analyze specified information, to the extent data is available, including, among other things, a review of research regarding evidence-based approaches to improving pupil attendance and the extent to which a states method of funding affects pupil attendance rates, the fiscal, programmatic, and administrative impacts of changing the pupil count methodology of the local control funding formula from average daily attendance to pupil enrollment, and the potential impacts on pupil attendance of changing the pupil count methodology of the local control funding formula from average daily attendance to pupil enrollment, as provided. The bill would require the report to include input from relevant stakeholders, as determined by the Legislative Analysts Office. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2027.